The Daughters of Ravensmere
by MandiPants
Summary: Clare isn't the female guardian her twin sister Rosa is. Rosa, Jake, and Susanna are o/cs created by me, all other characters are not owned by me and I take no credit for their creation.
1. Chapter 1

**The Daughters of Ravensmere**

_In the book __The China Garden__ Clare was the daughter, the female guardian of the benison. But, Dr. McKinnon said that the female guardians needed to be stronger than the men. I don't think that Clare fits this description. So I'm adding just one character to the mix, Clare's twin sister, Rosa. I'm officially stating that all other characters are owned by Liz Berry and Avon Books Inc. Enjoy my tale._

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**Chapter 1**

"Calm down mom. She'll be here. Nothing's happened. You know that I wouldn't be so calm if anything bad had happened. She's probably out celebrating, wasn't her last exam today?" Rosa said for the fifth time since the clock struck four.

"I'm sorry," Frances replied also for the fifth time. "I just need to talk to both of you and I don't want to be late for work."

"Go start to get ready. I promise I'll come get you when Clare gets home."

She sighed, "Alright." She started up the stairs. "As soon as she gets here!" she called when she reached the top.

Rosa just rolled her eyes and sat back down on the couch. She knew that her mother was worried about something. She was more irritable than Clare had been in the last couple of weeks. Rosa was proud of her "little" sister. She laughed to herself at the thought. After all she was only a minute and a half older than Clare. Still she was proud of Clare's achievements. Clare was taking exams to continue on into university in the fall, where she planned on majoring in business and economics. Rosa didn't feel right about making such a major decision about what she would do with the rest of her life. Her mother often called her flighty. She had a lot of interests, but couldn't pick just one for a career. After finishing school she started to work at a mechanic shop fixing cars. She loved doing it, and was able to save up enough money from it to buy her own 1970 Barracuda. She had completely rebuilt the engine and had refurbished the interior. Rosa loved her car and was really proud of herself for how well it ran.

"Hello! I'm home!" Clare called as she walked in the door and tossed her book bag in the corner.

"Clare! Where have you been? You're late!" Frances said coming down the stairs in her nurse uniform with a handful of hair pins.

"We all went to McDonalds. We were celebrating."

"With Adrian I presume," Frances said with a sour look on her face.

"No, with Sara actually. We had our last exam today, that's why we were celebrating."

"How'd it go?" Rosa asked taking the pins from her mother's nervously shaking hand.

"Good, it was all stuff that I needed to revise."

"Good! Didn't you want to talk to us about something mom?" Rosa said cheerfully as she put the last pin in her mother's hair and adjusted her hat.

"Yes," she said taking a deep breath. "I've got another job."

"You're leaving St. Joseph's? I thought you loved it there. You said you were up for a Sister Tudor's job or something." Clare was startled.

"It's a private nursing job…residential…down in West Country."

"So, we're moving," Rosa said as a statement not a question.

"Stoke Raven, in Somerset"

"WE'RE LEAVING LONDON!" Clare said completely shocked. "Leaving all our friends, selling the house."

"No, at least not selling the house. Not just yet. I'm renting it to a bone specialist and his wife from America. They'll be here for a year, and will be arriving in two weeks."

"TWO WEEKS!" Clare yelled. "But what if I don't want to go?"

"Calm down Clare. She's not finished." Rosa looked at their mother knowing that there was something that she didn't want to tell them. "Well?"

"I've spoken to Sara's mother and she said if you are willing to share a room you can have their spare until you head off to school or find a place of your own."

"I'm coming with you," Rosa said stone-faced.

"I am too." Clare added, "I don't want to stay in London by myself."

"Rosa, Clare, I really don't have time to argue with the two of you right now. You will have Sara…and Adrian, Clare. And you have to work at the shop, you love it there Rosa."

"I'd rather come with you mom," Rosa said while Clare nodded in agreement. "Isn't there any room for us?"

"Well of course there is. It's just, Stoke Raven is a small town. It doesn't have a public library or a swimming pool. You'll both be bored."

"I'd still rather go with you."

"Don't you have to give notice or something?" Clare asked.

"I already have, and before you get into how I didn't talk it over with either of you know this, if I had said something to you Clare you would have been distracted from your exams. And Rosa, you saw the letter I know you read at least part if it."

"I'm not angry that you are going mom. I want you to go, but whether you like it or not I'm coming along."

Frances let out a sigh. "I have to go. We'll talk about this later."

The next morning they all gathered for breakfast. Rosa looked at their mother and saw slight bags under her eyes.

"So have you thought about taking us with you?" Clare asked.

"I don't know, Clare. I have to go back, I owe."

"What do you mean 'go back?" Clare asked

At the same time Rosa asked, "Owe what?"

"I was there three years ago, for your grandfather's funeral. I grew up there." She ignored Rosa's question for the moment as Clare was more excitable. "It was while you were on the trip to France."

"Why didn't you tell us about him? You know how much I wished we had family and you didn't tell us!" Clare turned to Rosa. "Why aren't you upset about this? You feel the same as I do about it."

"I knew," Rosa said simply and started to fiddle with the spoon in her oatmeal.

"Why didn't you tell me then? We tell each other everything!"

"I," she took a deep breath. "I didn't know he existed until he died. I randomly got a thought about telling mom to get her long sleeved black dress out of the basement because the funeral would be outside. When I told her she was holding the letter that said he had died."

Clare just looked at her. While it wasn't unusual for their mother to know things before they happened it was for either of the twins. At least not to that extent, they would just know minor things like having to study so they could pass a pop quiz.

Frances decided to answer Rosa's question. "I owe something that can't be sent through the mail. I don't want either of you to get involved."

"We already are. Just by being you daughters," Rosa said with a shiver.

"Something's wrong isn't it. You're not telling the whole truth."

"You've both got your lives ahead of you. I don't want you," she looked at Rosa, "either of you," she added looking at Clare, "to get involved in this. It's my debt, my problem."

"We are coming mom." Rosa lifted a hand when her mother tried to interrupt. "I can just get a map and drive us down myself if necessary."

Over the next two weeks they had that same argument over and over. Finally, Frances submitted.

"Fine, the two of you can come. But don't blame me if you spend the whole summer bored. I tried to warn you." She tried to say it lightly but their was an undercurrent of worry there.

"Good, I'll meet the two of you there in a couple weeks," Rosa said.

"Why a couple weeks?" Clare asked.

"Mom held out for so long that I decided not to give notice to my boss. He says at least two weeks before you are going to leave you need to let him know. Plus Barry needs a tune-up."

Her mother let out a sigh, "You mean you were about to give up?"

"I never said that! Just that I wasn't sure that you were. I'll stay with Jake and his wife for two weeks and then I'll head to Stoke Raven."

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_Just a note here, Barry is her car. Yeah that's not real original, but since I wanted to give it a name like it was her baby. Also Jake is the shop owner. I'm not going into it much but she would have told him something about it so he wouldn't be shocked about her wanting to leave, and why would he offer her a room otherwise._


	2. Chapter 2

_If you read this book you'll know that Clare heads to Ravensmere with her mother shortly after convincing Frances, so I'm combining a few chapters *cough* like 10 *cough* in this one so that Rosa arrives at the right time. Write a review and tell me if I should continue on after where the book ends._

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**Chapter 2**

_Guard Ravensmere well_

_Its stones and hollows,_

_Health and prosperity_

_Always doth follow._

_Let Ravensmere die,_

_Let the land be torn open,_

_The end of the world_

_Is surely betokened._

"Rosa," Susanna called. "If you want pancakes come down now before Jake eats them all!"

"Coming," Rosa called back climbing out of bed. She hadn't been sleeping well lately because of some weird dreams she was having. Rosa quickly pulled on a clean t-shirt and a pair of jeans and grabbed a pair of socks and her work boots on the way out her bedroom door.

Susanna looked up from the pan that she was frying the pancakes in. "Wow hun, I'm glad I made a full pot of coffee this morning. Are you feeling ok?"

"I'm fine. I just haven't been sleeping all that well. I keep having all these strange dreams."

"Like what?" Jake asked stuffing a giant bite of pancake in his mouth.

Rosa poured and doctored a mug of coffee while she thought about it. "It's like visions of another time, and the whole time I can hear this woman's voice saying in a sing-song voice, 'Guard Ravensmere well/ Its stones and hollows,/ Health and prosperity/ Always doth follow./ Let Ravensmere die/ Let the land be torn open,/ The end of the world/ Is surely betokened.' The only thing I know is that Ravensmere is the place that mom and Clare are. The first night here I had this dream about the land being covered in nuclear waste." She sat down at the kitchen table and sipped her coffee.

"Well you always were sensitive to things like that," Susanna said putting a plate of pancakes down in front of Rosa and sitting down with her own. "Maybe it's some kind of weird dream from Clare or something."

"Oh, I know they are coming from Clare. I just don't know all of what is going on."

"Then head out on Saturday. Go meet up with your sister and find out what is going on," Jake said wiping the syrup off his lips and leaning back in his chair stuffed. "I don't mind. Just finish up MacGregor's transmission today and then you can have Friday to fix up Barry and do any minor jobs. You can leave Saturday morning."

"Thanks Jake. I'm getting worried about mom. Every day since they left I've felt like I have this ball in my chest and each day it keeps getting bigger and more stressful." Rosa then dug into her pancakes.

Saturday morning Rosa headed out to Somerset. Before she left she made sure to thank Jake repeatedly for letting her leave a few days earlier than planned. Rather than going the roundabout route that Clare had written that they took Rosa took the faster route. Still it took three hours for her to get to Ravensmere. She left shortly after 9 am and arrived just after noon.

She drove up towards the house, following the directions in Clare's letter. When she got to the crossroads a gang of bikers zoomed past nearly sideswiping Barry. Rosa swore at them out the window and continued down the lane and up to the house.

After she pulled through the open gate a stout man stopped her from moving forward to the stables.

"What are you doing here? This is private property!" he shouted getting red-faced.

"My mother works here," Rosa said calmly out the open window while pushing her sunglasses up on top of her head. "My name is-"

"So you're Frances's other daughter. I'll tell you what I told your sister: Don't bother with the gardens or the house, stick to the park and stables. Got it?"

"Mr. Fletcher I will go where I please. Mr. Aylward asked my mother to bring the two of us with her when she came to help." Rosa got out of her car and leaned against the closed door. "If you want us gone you better find a way to get rid of us yourself."

"You will do as I say!" he growled through gritted teeth. He moved forward and grabbed Rosa's arm. "I want you out of here now!"

"Let go of me!" Rosa said. When his grip only tightened she swung out with her other hand and punched him right in the jaw. He let go of her and fell back a few steps. Rosa got into her car and drove up to the stables and parked next to her mother's car.

When Rosa got out of the car again she took a deep breath before heading to the kitchen door. Frances was sitting with her back to the door eating a quick lunch. Mrs. Anscomb walked through another door with a tray in her hands. When she looked up from the tray she nearly dropped it. Frances turned around and gasped.

"I didn't know you were getting in today! When did you get here?"

"Just now. Where is Clare?"

"She caught the bus to Salisbury for market day. What happened to your hand?"

"What?" Rosa looked at her hand and noticed that it was red from punching Fletcher in the face. "Nothing, I must have bumped it the other day and forgot about it. When did Clare catch the bus?"

"This morning and why are you lying to me about your hand?"

"It's not important, I banged it on something. It doesn't even hurt. See." She curled and uncurled her hand.

"Fine, are you going to go pick up Clare? I had her drop some prescriptions off at the chemists so don't let her forget that."

"Ok. I wanted to talk to her about something. I'll see you later mum."

Rosa walked back out to her car and got her bags out and put them in their apartment. Then she got in the car and drove to Salisbury. She left the windows down and swung her dark red hair over the headrest letting it blow in the wind. She smiled feeling free for the first time in a while. She wasn't tied down by a job or some guy trying to get in her pants. She laughed and turned up her radio. When she finally got to Salisbury she stopped at the chemist and asked about her mother's supplies. Then she headed to the museum knowing Clare would stop there at some point in time. A guide there told her that she just missed her. So she started to wander around Salisbury stopping in shops that caught her eye. It was almost four when she decided to check some cafés for Clare, so she went back to her car and drove around checking in ones that were near places Clare would visit.

She was driving past one café when she noticed the motorcycles that had nearly sideswiped her earlier. One in particular caught her eye. It was the biggest one of them all and had the best engine, and also the most expensive one. She considered for a moment messing with the engine as she got a closer look, but changed her mind when she heard Clare's pleading voice.

"Please let me go. I have to catch the bus," she said standing in the midst of the gang. "It's the last one."

"Sorry love," one of the guys standing close to her said, "it's already gone by now."

"Oh, no!" she said looking at the watch shoved under her nose. "How will I get back?"

"I'll take you," the obvious leader said.

Rosa walked through the door completely at that moment. "That won't be necessary." She walked forward putting herself in-between Clare and the leader.

"Rosa! I thought you were still in London!"

"Rosa? So you're my Rosie." He looked her up and down. Rosa was taller than Clare by about three inches, meaning her eyelevel was at his nose rather than his chin. While Clare had wiry black hair with some deep red highlights, Rosa's was all a deep rich red. Rosa was toned to Clare's thin and lightly tanned compared to Clare's ivory skin. The leader lightly licked his lips and gave a half smile. "It took you long enough to get here Rosie."

"Don't call me Rosie," she said her silvery eyes turning icy. "I don't like it."

He reached out and brushed a piece of hair out of her eyes, "It doesn't matter if you like it, you're still mine."

Clare stepped back towards the door knowing how Rosa's temper was. Rosa took a step closer to the leader, stomped on his toes with the heel of her boot and shoved at his shoulders causing him to fall backwards over a chair. His friends laughed and one of them, while laughing helped him up.

"A few things you should remember Mark: one, never call me Rosie, two, never touch me unless I let you, and three, stay away from my sister."


End file.
